What do you do when the cool kids at Google won’t let you hang out in their tree house? Why, you build one of your own, of course.
That’s the approach that members of Anonymous are taking after several affiliated accounts belonging to members of the hacktivist collective were barred from using Google Plus, the Web giant’s latest foray into social media.
Anonymous’s “Your Anon News” account, as well as the accounts belonging to members pledging allegiance to the hacker community, were shut down from the new online playing field for alleged violations of community standards. Maybe Google doesn’t want to host a forum for Web criminals, but that isn’t going to stop the gang at Anonymous from having fun.
The group has laid out the groundwork for their own social media nework, tentatively titled AnonPlus, which they say will be open to everyone.
“Welcome to the Revolution,” reads a post on the Tumblr page for the still in-the-works platform. The group says that are aiming to create a social network “that will not tolerate being shut down, censored or oppressed – even in the face of blackout.”
“We the people have had enough,” continues the Tumblr post. “Enough of governments and corporations saying what’s best for us – what’s safe for our minds.”
Anonymous also writes that their recent black-listing from Google Plus is an inevitable result, writing, “This is the sad fact of what happens across the Internet when you walk to a different beat of the drum.”
There has not been an official expected launch date for the new network, but reportedly 18 developers are trying to get the site off the ground at the moment.
On Monday, Anonymous helped spread tweets from hacktivist offshoot LulzSec signaling the infiltration of News Corp’s The Sun website in the midst of an international scandal ravaging media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s extensive empire of news outlets.